As for the above comments regarding what the human body is designed to eat that is misinformation and very dangerous to follow. All human beings need a balanced diet of both meat and plant material in moderation. In the history of the human being scientists know that our brains depend upon the essential nutrients found in meat. When you do not consume meat some people are able to adapt for short periods of time if their gut activity can make VB12. But children cannot do this especially growing children and developing fetuses. It is now clear we are on a collision course with misinformation being pushed by political propaganda about what is needed by the human body to maintain health. I find so much ignorance about diets and about biology that this is indeed dangerous to our future children. As for meat causing cancer that is untrue as the study was directed toward overcooked meat over certain types of charcoal. Human beings have been eating meat ever since they arrived on this earth and eating meat has a direct correlation with the development of the human brain. Without we would not be as intelligent as we are today. It is important to find out the facts rather than just mouthing the junk information that abounds on the internet. Over 12 million children die from lack of meat protein in the world every year. Don't let your child be one of these statistics.
Dr_Barnes - 13 years ago
Before you advocate a vegan diet you had better read up on the consequences to young children. The dark side includes death, damage to internal organs and the bones. For boys the soy is a real problem and its the only plant that comes close to the complex proteins found in meat. The digestion of soy during pregnancy has become a growing controversy.
A new study of babies born to vegetarian mothers showed that baby boys had a five-fold risk of hypospadias, a birth defect of the sexual organs according to research stated by Jane Phillimore. Inappropriate hormone levels caused by a high intake of soy during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy can cause damage to the fetus’s developing brain.”
Research has shown that soy-formula contains approximately the same amount of estrogen found in five birth control pills. Imagine the effect this has on children, not to mention baby boys. “These babies’ isoflavone levels were found to be from 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than in non-soy fed infants,” according to http://www.mercola.com. Singer the leader of the animal rights movement in his last article for the New York Times called on all of our young people to neuter themselves and then party down until the last human being dies out. The main identifier of a cult is that it requires you to remove meat from your diet on the pretext that it is healthy. There is no research that proves a vegan diet is healthy and there is lot to say it is dangerous especially for children. The real purpose in having you stop eating meat is because meat rebuilds the brain through a balance of complex proteins and essential nutrients in combination with VB12. When you are low in VB12 the brain becomes irrational and overly emotional. The vegan diet can be devastating to young children. In a heartbreaking case a 12-year-old girl in Scotland was admitted to a hospital after a life-long vegan diet left her with the spine of an 80-year-old. Raised without the nutrients that come from milk and meat since birth,she developed a severe case of rickets (a degenerative bone condition) and numerous bone fractures. In the US a 15-month-old child was taken into foster care after a strict vegan diet left her with internal injuries, broken bones, missing teeth, and rickets. Two more vegan children died from similar complications in the US. In Florida, a 5-month-old girl was still at newborn weight when she died from malnutrition. Her siblings were severely malnourished, and at least two had developed rickets on vegan diets. A 6-week-old Atlanta vegan baby died last year and these incidences are increasing in vegan raised children. A strict vegan diet lacks vitamin B12, found only in animal foods; usable vitamins A and D, found in meat, fish, eggs and butter; and necessary minerals like calcium and zinc. When babies are deprived of all these nutrients, they will suffer from retarded growth, rickets and nerve damage. As animal activists tout meatless diets note that 1 out of 5 human beings cannot digest plant protein especially children. Yet vegan activists at PETA and the woefully misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) continue to push vegan diets on children. 12 million infants and young children die each year in developing countries from complications of marasmus (protein- deficiency) and kwashiorkor (severe protein deficiency). We are now finding these problems in American children of strict vegan parents. Malnutrition is one of the many risks when raising infants on a vegan diet.
laura - 13 years ago
I live in S.E. Alabama, Some people in my area and in Florida eat alligator, possum and rattlesnake. Not me, but I'll eat rabbit, squirrel, wild turkey, deer even horse meat and goat meat (ground up). Free range is best. I'm picky where I buy beef or pork and go to local farmer supplied meat market.
November - 13 years ago
OH AND P.S. WHEN I DO EAT CHICKEN OR TURKEY, IT IS ORGANICALLY FEED, HORMONE FREE, UNCAGED/FREE RANGE, LOCAL, HUMANELY SLAUGHTERED AND ON THE RARE OCCASION THAT I BUY EGGS, THEY ARE NOT FERTILE AND IT IS FROM ORGANICALLY FEED, HORMONE FREE, CAGE-FREE, LOCAL HENS.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE A MEAT EATER AND DRINK MILK AND EAT EGGS AND OTHER DAIRY PRODUCTS, PLEASE ONLY EAT THOSE THAT ARE ORGANICALLY, NATURALLY FEED, A CORN-FREE DIET IS EVEN BETTER, HUMANELY SLAUGHTERED, FREE-RANGE, WELL TAKEN CARE OF ANIMALS AND TRY TO GET IT FROM SOMEWHERE LOCAL AND EVEN SOMEPLACE YOU CAN GO VISIT AND TAKE A TOUR OF. BE INTEGRAL AND ETHICAL IN YOUR CHOICES, PLEASE. =)
November - 13 years ago
Ummm.....I used to be a huge meat eater and for the last seventeen years I have , instinctively and naturally, been increasingly sickened by meat....meaning; it wasn't a conscious plan, it just happened on its on. I used to eat pork chops and steak regularly with at least two tall glasses of milk. NOW (and for the last 17 years) it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about!! I worked at a deli for about a year and had to have the morning shift person slice the roast beef because it made me severely nauseous...AGAIN...this was not something I thought out and made a plan...it just happened. Milk is puss, it's disgusting and I used to not be able to get through a meal without lots of it. THANK GOD FOR THAT INSTINCT!
I eat mainly vegetables. I have not been entirely able to let go of my psychological addiction to chicken and turkey. I can't stand that, but I don't beat myself up about it, it will happen. I try to stick to 80% veggie/fruit diet and eat as little fowl as possible and OFTEN go long periods of time not eating ANY meat and even being VEGAN. It's all just conditioning. We were raised believing that meat is a normal part of a diet, as were our parents and their parents and their parents. WE DO NOT NEED MEAT IN OUR DIETS TO SURVIVE OR BE HEALTHY. EATING MEAT IS A CHOICE. My aversion to almost ALL meat is based on a moral, integral, humane stance. There should not be any difference between eating a cow or a chicken and eating a horse or a dog, but there is. There is, for the OBVIOUS and LOGICAL reason that we develop social connections and relationships with the animals we traditionally choose as pets. It would be like eating your child or your best friend. A big no no!!! THAT is also purely psychological, because a living thing with flesh, is a living thing with flesh.
I think that as our disgusting, inhumane, torturous, cruel and even EVIL treatment of animals and living beings in general, and our continued immoral slaughter of them, MORESO FOR MONEY OR SPORT THAN FOR FOOD SOURCES, is a growing awareness and a problem for people. They don't want any part of it.
AS FAR AS THE HORSE ISSUE, other than what I mentioned earlier about the fact that we have actual relationships with our horses, THE MAIN DIFFERENCE IS THE FACT THAT THESE HORSES ARE NOT BEING SPECIALLY BRED AND RAISED FOR FOOD, LIKE COWS AND PIGS AND CHICKENS...THEY ARE THE LAST REMAINING WILD HORSES IN OUR COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT!
PEOPLE WHO RACE AND BREED HORSES DON'T GIVE A SHIT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT PUREBREDS, SO THEIR LIVES ARE OF NO VALUE AND NO MONEY CAN BE MADE OFF OF THEM.
steve - 13 years ago
What about humans? Why isn't human flesh on the menu? Meat is meat, right? I mean, you wouldn't want to eat the brains for fear of getting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease but other than that it is safe to eat.
Human flesh has been used for meat for thousands of years. While some people think only "primitive" head-hunters practiced cannibalism, in more recent times human meat has been enjoyed on the Andes mountains as well. Jeffery Dahmer enjoyed human meat so much he reportedly licked his fingers clean after eating licked fingers.
Grandma: It's what's for dinner.
Kyle - 13 years ago
regarding the first comment... we are NOT designed as herbivores, we are designed as omnivores. we have canines, which are teeth designed not to chew plants, but to strip flesh from bone. also, we have eyes in the front of our heads, which is an evolutionary trait of predators, not prey. it gives them better depth perception. herbivores have eyes on the side of their heads to give them a broader range of vision, helping them to NOT get eaten.
for the record, i am a 10 year vegetarian. i just also happen to be well educated.
jean robertson - 13 years ago
Meat from factory farmed animals is full of drugs. Feeder cattle are packed into feedlots by the thousands and stand in manure up past their knees for months at a time. Dairy cow (hamburger) are fed huge amounts of grain to produce more milk and their hooves are damaged from standing on concrete their whole lives. They used to live well into their teens now they only survive 3 lactations. Their livers are destroyed. Factory farmed animals never breath clean air or enjoy sunshine. The meat was much more healthier years ago when animals were raised naturally on small farms. Colts are fed rich diets to make them mature early so that they can be competing at an early age before their growth is complete. They are then given more drugs to keep them performing. Most every horse in this country has been given bute a known carcinogenic at least once in their lives. One out of every 3 race horses born ends up slaughtered. These horses are routinely given many many drugs to keep them running. The odd part is the dog food companies do not use horsemeat for fear of being sued. This same drug infested meat can be exported to feed rich Europeans. Go figure.
vegetexan - 13 years ago
Carnism is a (usually cultural) system of beliefs that cause us to see some animals as edible and some as not. For those interested in the psychology of meat eating, I urge you to see Dr. Melanie Joy's website http://www.carnism.com/
bigNugly - 13 years ago
go eat a carrot u dumb dried out sack of spuds. BEEF It's what's for dinner!
Linda Middlesworth - 13 years ago
There is NO nutritional reason to eat animal foods of any kind. We are culturally indoctrinated to think we need to eat animal flesh or secretions but we are designed as herbivores and when we do eat animal foods, we get the chronic health problems, i.e. cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disorders, etc. We need a cultural shift to educated humans that there is no reason to treat any animal as food or commodities and thus inflict pain on them. We hide the egregious acts of violence levied at the so called food animals. At age 67, I have been vegan for 20 years and now have my health back and feel wonderful knowing that I am not part of the violent confinement, mutilation, isolation, slaughter inherent in animal agriculture. There is NO humane killing of any being. All beings just want to live, take care of their young and be free from pain. Go to: goveg.com
As for the above comments regarding what the human body is designed to eat that is misinformation and very dangerous to follow. All human beings need a balanced diet of both meat and plant material in moderation. In the history of the human being scientists know that our brains depend upon the essential nutrients found in meat. When you do not consume meat some people are able to adapt for short periods of time if their gut activity can make VB12. But children cannot do this especially growing children and developing fetuses. It is now clear we are on a collision course with misinformation being pushed by political propaganda about what is needed by the human body to maintain health. I find so much ignorance about diets and about biology that this is indeed dangerous to our future children. As for meat causing cancer that is untrue as the study was directed toward overcooked meat over certain types of charcoal. Human beings have been eating meat ever since they arrived on this earth and eating meat has a direct correlation with the development of the human brain. Without we would not be as intelligent as we are today. It is important to find out the facts rather than just mouthing the junk information that abounds on the internet. Over 12 million children die from lack of meat protein in the world every year. Don't let your child be one of these statistics.
Before you advocate a vegan diet you had better read up on the consequences to young children. The dark side includes death, damage to internal organs and the bones. For boys the soy is a real problem and its the only plant that comes close to the complex proteins found in meat. The digestion of soy during pregnancy has become a growing controversy.
A new study of babies born to vegetarian mothers showed that baby boys had a five-fold risk of hypospadias, a birth defect of the sexual organs according to research stated by Jane Phillimore. Inappropriate hormone levels caused by a high intake of soy during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy can cause damage to the fetus’s developing brain.”
Research has shown that soy-formula contains approximately the same amount of estrogen found in five birth control pills. Imagine the effect this has on children, not to mention baby boys. “These babies’ isoflavone levels were found to be from 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than in non-soy fed infants,” according to http://www.mercola.com. Singer the leader of the animal rights movement in his last article for the New York Times called on all of our young people to neuter themselves and then party down until the last human being dies out. The main identifier of a cult is that it requires you to remove meat from your diet on the pretext that it is healthy. There is no research that proves a vegan diet is healthy and there is lot to say it is dangerous especially for children. The real purpose in having you stop eating meat is because meat rebuilds the brain through a balance of complex proteins and essential nutrients in combination with VB12. When you are low in VB12 the brain becomes irrational and overly emotional. The vegan diet can be devastating to young children. In a heartbreaking case a 12-year-old girl in Scotland was admitted to a hospital after a life-long vegan diet left her with the spine of an 80-year-old. Raised without the nutrients that come from milk and meat since birth,she developed a severe case of rickets (a degenerative bone condition) and numerous bone fractures. In the US a 15-month-old child was taken into foster care after a strict vegan diet left her with internal injuries, broken bones, missing teeth, and rickets. Two more vegan children died from similar complications in the US. In Florida, a 5-month-old girl was still at newborn weight when she died from malnutrition. Her siblings were severely malnourished, and at least two had developed rickets on vegan diets. A 6-week-old Atlanta vegan baby died last year and these incidences are increasing in vegan raised children. A strict vegan diet lacks vitamin B12, found only in animal foods; usable vitamins A and D, found in meat, fish, eggs and butter; and necessary minerals like calcium and zinc. When babies are deprived of all these nutrients, they will suffer from retarded growth, rickets and nerve damage. As animal activists tout meatless diets note that 1 out of 5 human beings cannot digest plant protein especially children. Yet vegan activists at PETA and the woefully misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) continue to push vegan diets on children. 12 million infants and young children die each year in developing countries from complications of marasmus (protein- deficiency) and kwashiorkor (severe protein deficiency). We are now finding these problems in American children of strict vegan parents. Malnutrition is one of the many risks when raising infants on a vegan diet.
I live in S.E. Alabama, Some people in my area and in Florida eat alligator, possum and rattlesnake. Not me, but I'll eat rabbit, squirrel, wild turkey, deer even horse meat and goat meat (ground up). Free range is best. I'm picky where I buy beef or pork and go to local farmer supplied meat market.
OH AND P.S. WHEN I DO EAT CHICKEN OR TURKEY, IT IS ORGANICALLY FEED, HORMONE FREE, UNCAGED/FREE RANGE, LOCAL, HUMANELY SLAUGHTERED AND ON THE RARE OCCASION THAT I BUY EGGS, THEY ARE NOT FERTILE AND IT IS FROM ORGANICALLY FEED, HORMONE FREE, CAGE-FREE, LOCAL HENS.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE A MEAT EATER AND DRINK MILK AND EAT EGGS AND OTHER DAIRY PRODUCTS, PLEASE ONLY EAT THOSE THAT ARE ORGANICALLY, NATURALLY FEED, A CORN-FREE DIET IS EVEN BETTER, HUMANELY SLAUGHTERED, FREE-RANGE, WELL TAKEN CARE OF ANIMALS AND TRY TO GET IT FROM SOMEWHERE LOCAL AND EVEN SOMEPLACE YOU CAN GO VISIT AND TAKE A TOUR OF. BE INTEGRAL AND ETHICAL IN YOUR CHOICES, PLEASE. =)
Ummm.....I used to be a huge meat eater and for the last seventeen years I have , instinctively and naturally, been increasingly sickened by meat....meaning; it wasn't a conscious plan, it just happened on its on. I used to eat pork chops and steak regularly with at least two tall glasses of milk. NOW (and for the last 17 years) it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about!! I worked at a deli for about a year and had to have the morning shift person slice the roast beef because it made me severely nauseous...AGAIN...this was not something I thought out and made a plan...it just happened. Milk is puss, it's disgusting and I used to not be able to get through a meal without lots of it. THANK GOD FOR THAT INSTINCT!
I eat mainly vegetables. I have not been entirely able to let go of my psychological addiction to chicken and turkey. I can't stand that, but I don't beat myself up about it, it will happen. I try to stick to 80% veggie/fruit diet and eat as little fowl as possible and OFTEN go long periods of time not eating ANY meat and even being VEGAN. It's all just conditioning. We were raised believing that meat is a normal part of a diet, as were our parents and their parents and their parents. WE DO NOT NEED MEAT IN OUR DIETS TO SURVIVE OR BE HEALTHY. EATING MEAT IS A CHOICE. My aversion to almost ALL meat is based on a moral, integral, humane stance. There should not be any difference between eating a cow or a chicken and eating a horse or a dog, but there is. There is, for the OBVIOUS and LOGICAL reason that we develop social connections and relationships with the animals we traditionally choose as pets. It would be like eating your child or your best friend. A big no no!!! THAT is also purely psychological, because a living thing with flesh, is a living thing with flesh.
I think that as our disgusting, inhumane, torturous, cruel and even EVIL treatment of animals and living beings in general, and our continued immoral slaughter of them, MORESO FOR MONEY OR SPORT THAN FOR FOOD SOURCES, is a growing awareness and a problem for people. They don't want any part of it.
AS FAR AS THE HORSE ISSUE, other than what I mentioned earlier about the fact that we have actual relationships with our horses, THE MAIN DIFFERENCE IS THE FACT THAT THESE HORSES ARE NOT BEING SPECIALLY BRED AND RAISED FOR FOOD, LIKE COWS AND PIGS AND CHICKENS...THEY ARE THE LAST REMAINING WILD HORSES IN OUR COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT!
PEOPLE WHO RACE AND BREED HORSES DON'T GIVE A SHIT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT PUREBREDS, SO THEIR LIVES ARE OF NO VALUE AND NO MONEY CAN BE MADE OFF OF THEM.
What about humans? Why isn't human flesh on the menu? Meat is meat, right? I mean, you wouldn't want to eat the brains for fear of getting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease but other than that it is safe to eat.
Human flesh has been used for meat for thousands of years. While some people think only "primitive" head-hunters practiced cannibalism, in more recent times human meat has been enjoyed on the Andes mountains as well. Jeffery Dahmer enjoyed human meat so much he reportedly licked his fingers clean after eating licked fingers.
Grandma: It's what's for dinner.
regarding the first comment... we are NOT designed as herbivores, we are designed as omnivores. we have canines, which are teeth designed not to chew plants, but to strip flesh from bone. also, we have eyes in the front of our heads, which is an evolutionary trait of predators, not prey. it gives them better depth perception. herbivores have eyes on the side of their heads to give them a broader range of vision, helping them to NOT get eaten.
for the record, i am a 10 year vegetarian. i just also happen to be well educated.
Meat from factory farmed animals is full of drugs. Feeder cattle are packed into feedlots by the thousands and stand in manure up past their knees for months at a time. Dairy cow (hamburger) are fed huge amounts of grain to produce more milk and their hooves are damaged from standing on concrete their whole lives. They used to live well into their teens now they only survive 3 lactations. Their livers are destroyed. Factory farmed animals never breath clean air or enjoy sunshine. The meat was much more healthier years ago when animals were raised naturally on small farms. Colts are fed rich diets to make them mature early so that they can be competing at an early age before their growth is complete. They are then given more drugs to keep them performing. Most every horse in this country has been given bute a known carcinogenic at least once in their lives. One out of every 3 race horses born ends up slaughtered. These horses are routinely given many many drugs to keep them running. The odd part is the dog food companies do not use horsemeat for fear of being sued. This same drug infested meat can be exported to feed rich Europeans. Go figure.
Carnism is a (usually cultural) system of beliefs that cause us to see some animals as edible and some as not. For those interested in the psychology of meat eating, I urge you to see Dr. Melanie Joy's website http://www.carnism.com/
go eat a carrot u dumb dried out sack of spuds. BEEF It's what's for dinner!
There is NO nutritional reason to eat animal foods of any kind. We are culturally indoctrinated to think we need to eat animal flesh or secretions but we are designed as herbivores and when we do eat animal foods, we get the chronic health problems, i.e. cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disorders, etc. We need a cultural shift to educated humans that there is no reason to treat any animal as food or commodities and thus inflict pain on them. We hide the egregious acts of violence levied at the so called food animals. At age 67, I have been vegan for 20 years and now have my health back and feel wonderful knowing that I am not part of the violent confinement, mutilation, isolation, slaughter inherent in animal agriculture. There is NO humane killing of any being. All beings just want to live, take care of their young and be free from pain. Go to: goveg.com